Improvement in trusses



UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

HERMAN A. WASHBURN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRUSSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 156.050, dated October 20, 1874 application filed August 5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN A. WASH- BURN, of Boston, Massachusetts, have invented a J ointPad Truss, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to retain rupture easily and efi'ectually, by the combination, in a joint-pad truss, of a cloth bandage around the body, holding in place alarge thin pad with an improved method of pressure by two loops of elastic webbing, one above the other, placed outside of the bandage, and bearing against the pad, with the help of a pressure-block, which is a piece of wood between the lower elastic and bandage, outside the pad.

In the drawing there is shown, in Figure l, the outer, and in Fig. 2 the inner, view of the truss. Figs. 3 and 4 show a pad simply attached to the belt; and Fig. 5 shows two pads.

In the figures, l is the broad belt. 2 and 3 are the two elastic pressure bands or loops,

retained by the guide 4.. 5 and 6 are the flat and projecting portions, respectively, of the jointed pad; 7, the buckle for the thigh-strap 8, the thigh-strap.

The pad is made with a joint in the center, as shown in the drawing, causing the upper part to conform to the motions of the body. The lower part is convex, and made of wood covered with sheet-lead or its equivalent. The upper part is flat,'and made of sheet-zinc.

This metal is cooling and astringent, and very useful for this purpose. The pad is covered with cloth; a seam sewed at the joint and sewed to the bandage. The pressureblook is covered, and fastened in the same way. The elastics, on a single truss, for a grown person, are ordinarily a quarter of a yard long, and the ends of them are sewed to the bandage, which is gathered up, between the ends of the elastios and pad.

It will be evident that this last-mentioned part of the truss may be made of elastic or rubber tubing, with cloth attached for buckling, and that in case of more than one rupture on a person the whole part of the bandage and the elastios may be extended and another pad placed in proper position.

The size and shape of the upper and lower part of the pad must be varied according to the rupture. The pressure-block is not larger than the lower part of the pad, and the thickness to be varied.

The advantages of a large thin pad are, that it is easier and more effectual with this improved pressure, which bears not only against the rupture, but against the abdomen near it, by the pressure-block and elastios bearing against the pad and bandage.

I claim as my invention- The combination, in a truss, substantially as described, of a broad cloth band, bifurcated at one end, and carrying a jointed pad, made up of a flat and of a convex portion, the latter having a pressure-block outside of it, the last-named parts being all incased in cloth, and pressed upon the body by means of two elastic loops running parallel with the bodyband, all as set forth.

HERMAN A. WASHBURN.

Witnesses WILLIAM A. BARTLETT, DANIEL DONOVAN. 

